Spring and Autumn I Am King

Once again, he dreamed that he was sitting between the two steps of the east and west, not Xia Feizhou, but in the place where the Yin people were buried...

"Yu Shi Yin people are also... but they are very polite." After muttering such a sentence in a dream, Confucius was awakened by Zi Lu's loud voice, and at the same time he felt the cold weather outside.

"Master, look who's here!"

After shouting loudly, Zi Lu got in, and he slowly helped Confucius up. Despite his rough character, he treated Confucius very carefully—even though he was an old man in his sixties.

Zilu was originally in Ye Gong's army, and after Zhao Chu stopped fighting, he was able to return to Yedi. Coincidentally, after 20 years of stubbornness, Confucius finally met with Zhao Wuxi, and they had a deep conversation. The two seemed to have explained everything in the past 30 years, and he was finally willing to embark on the return journey. to hometown.

Stop-and-go along the way. In all, they have been walking for a month. Although there is the most comfortable four-wheeled carriage provided by Zhao Wuxi, although the roads in the Central Plains are not what they used to be, the noon road is vertical and horizontal, and the traffic is convenient. There is a place where Tingyi provides hot water, food and rest. Under the special care of Zhao Wuxi, Confucius, Zilu and others enjoyed the treatment of county officials.

Even so, going against the road is still difficult, not to mention the weather in the cold winter and twelfth lunar month, the ground has become hard, and when the wind blows, the horses are trembling and are unwilling to go.

But they never stopped because Confucius said something in the car.

"The fox must die..."

He could feel that his time was short, and he only hoped to return to his hometown while he was alive.

On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, they were halfway through and met someone who came to greet them, and this was the scene at the beginning.

Confucius sat up with a cane under the support of Zilu. Someone came hurriedly outside, bowed down and bowed three times on the icy ground, and said in a weeping tone: "Master, Ran Qiu, an unfilial disciple, has come to welcome Master!"

Confucius was already old and dim, and Ran Qiu was now also an important minister of the Zhao State.

He laughed: "Please, why are you here?"

"Master, where my duty is, I can't leave the jurisdiction rashly, I can only wait at the pavilion on the border."

Ran Qiu wiped his tears and said to Zi Lu, "It's all here, let's help Master down and take a look."

Zilu agreed and helped Confucius to get out of the car. As soon as he came out, a gust of cold wind rushed toward his face. Fortunately, the bodies of his disciples blocked him. After all, Confucius was no longer strong and tall, and could drive a three-stone bow.

"Master, look, where is that?"

Zi Lu's tone was very excited. He pressed the sword with his left hand and pointed forward with his right hand. Confucius narrowed his eyes and looked over, only to see that it was a large icy lake that was about to be frozen, surrounded by hills and hills, perhaps hundreds of miles wide...

"This is... Onozawa?" In his memory, the green lake water that was haunted by his dreams has been rippling in his heart. Confucius recognized this place. A little further north, it is the Zhongduyi he once taught for the government!

After passing here, it is the border of Lu Kingdom.

The old man breathed a sigh of relief and almost cried. I left home 20 years ago, and I just returned now. My old wife is dead, and my grandchildren are all grown up. As for my peers, not many are still alive, right? His former opponent, Roi Zhi, has also been killed for many years. It is said that his son has traveled back and forth to the far west, which is thousands of miles away.

"I've finally returned to Lu Country..."

Confucius said this, but Ran Qiu was a little embarrassed, and when Confucius calmed down a little, he smiled and said, "Master, now, there is no state of Lu, and the area around Dayezawa is together with some of the former states of Cao and Wei. , are placed under the jurisdiction of Shanyang County, and the disciples are not talented, so they are the county Sima in Shanyang."

"Lu State is gone?" Perhaps it was because of the fatigue of the journey, or because he was a little confused because of his old age, Confucius thought about it for a while before he remembered it.

"No, in addition to Shanyang County, Taishan County, Lu County, and Linyi County are divided into three counties, Luhou, and only Kanyi, where the ancestral mausoleum is located..."

"On the way, Zheng State was gone, Wei State was gone, Cao State became Taoqiu Autonomous City, and now, even Lu State is gone."

Confucius was disappointed and smiled bitterly: "What he said is not wrong. In the past twenty years, the changes in the Central Plains are comparable to the destruction of Taishan and the destruction of beams and pillars!"

Last month, Zhao Wuxi confessed to Confucius in Yexian that he would follow the example of Tang Wu and replace Zhou Tianzi.

He did not force Confucius to do anything, but he seemed to have some expectations, expecting Confucius to accept this matter and follow him to witness it all.

But Confucius replied: "I can't be Bo Yi Shu Qi who doesn't eat Zhou Su, and I can't be Liu Xia Hui and Shao Lian who are humiliated. I don't want to be humiliated in order to make progress, and I don't hide away from the world. Ershun, what the uncle said is absolutely necessary, but right now, I just want to do what I want and return to my hometown and grow old..."

Zhou Li's world, the dream of restoring the rule of three generations, he finally let go, but he still couldn't let go.

Now that the hometown is back, but Ludi, which has been ruled by the Zhao family for a generation, can't find its former appearance. How could Confucius not feel a sense of sympathy?

At this moment, the road ahead suddenly became noisy, but Ran Qiu's sons and nephews were late and wanted to squeeze over to meet Confucius.

"Why so late!"

Ran Qiu was furious. If Confucius wasn't there, he would have almost stripped off the clothes of these **** and punished them on the spot.

Those sons and nephews didn't dare to say anything, they just looked at the tall white old man in front of him curiously, bowed down according to Ran Qiu's request, and called him the master...

"You are young talents, get up, get up." Confucius's mood has calmed down a lot. This group of young people who are still riding with bows in the big winter. rare.

Perhaps, this is the new atmosphere under the rule of Zhao State?

While thinking about it, those Ran Qiu's sons and nephews asked Confucius to identify a "monster" they caught on the way.

"I encountered this beast on the road, and I was busy chasing it, so I came late. After I caught it, I couldn't tell which species it was. I have heard that the master is knowledgeable, and I have a look."

Regardless of others, Zi Lu immediately became interested, tugged up his sleeves, and together with the Ran's sons and nephews, carried the squealing monster over and placed it in front of Confucius.

But I saw that the monster was covered in brown fur, the size of a cow, with the body of a deer, the tail of a cow, the hooves of a horse, and a single slender horn on its head. Confucius wailed, with tears in his eyes...

Confucius was shocked: "Lin, this is Lin!"

...

Confucius' reaction was very violent. He first wiped his face with his back and weeping. It seems that he saw his own shadow from this rare auspicious beast, and then squatted down and hugged the beast, and wept loudly:

"Lin, you were originally a benevolent beast, and you should have appeared in a peaceful and prosperous age. Why did you come into this chaotic world where rituals are broken and music is broken? Who is here, who is here? Tang Yu Shi Xi Lin Feng You, today is not What did you ask for at that time? Lin Xi Lin Xi, I am worried..."

Zi Lu, Ran Qiu and others didn't know what it was, but they didn't dare to disturb the Master and let him vent his grief and anger.

After a while, that Tuulin was no longer frightened in Confucius' arms, and after he had recovered his calm, there was a trace of panic on his face, and he muttered to himself: "In five hundred years, there will be a king who will prosper, from Yao and Shun to Tang. Five hundred years, five hundred years from Tang to King Wen, and five hundred years from King Wen to the present, there must be a king who thrives in five hundred years..."

"Today the lin beasts appear, is it possible that the phoenix bird will arrive next, and the river map will come out? The Zhao family replaces Zhou as the emperor, the one who steals the hook is executed, and the one who steals the country is a prince. Is it really the destiny? Is it possible? , all you do is to block the fate of the mantra, Zhongni, Zhongni, how ridiculous are you, how ridiculous?"

He laughed wildly.

"Master!"

Seeing that Confucius had fallen into an old confused state again, Zi Lu was not shy and shouted at the head: "Zi does not speak strange, force, chaos, and spirit! What's more, have you forgotten what Zhao Hou said to you that day?"

This sentence awakened Confucius, and only Zilu dared to speak to Confucius like this. The relationship between the two was both a teacher and a brother from beginning to end.

"You, the one who can go from me to the end is still you." Confucius, who had come out of Zhou Yi Tianming's circle, woke up.

"When I was in Yedi, I felt that no one in the world can understand me anymore. But I don't blame the heavens and the others. I study human affairs, I understand the principles of heaven, and only the heavens can understand me. When I was old, I started to study Zhouyi, hoping to find some sustenance from it."

"But on that day, Zhao Zitai said in front of me that he would replace the Zhou family and sublate the three generations. I thought he was going to call himself the destiny. But he declared to me that there is nothing in this world. Destiny..."

Because it is easy to get confused at an old age, there are many things in Confucius's mind that come and go, but at this time, he finally remembered what Zhao Wuxi said to him that day in Yexian Luzhong~www.wuxiahere.com~ .

"From Wu's point of view, Heaven's actions are constant, not for Yao's existence, not for Jie's death. If you should deal with it, you will be lucky, and if you deal with it, you will be vicious!"

Zhao Wuxi said that it is not because of the appearance of auspicious signs such as phoenix birds and river pictures that the world is at peace, but because people's efforts have made the world a better place, so that the world can be governed, and some ordinary things are regarded as good omen.

He bluntly said that when Confucius was in his prime, he believed very much in human affairs, but in his later years, he put his hope in the destiny of destiny, which was going astray.

"In fact, the old man has understood it long ago. It is impossible to revive the Zhou Li, return to the rule of three generations, and find the good old days when everyone was good to each other and the order was always good... People's hearts are not ancient, and the situation is not allowed. The ambitious princes will eventually find the old-fashioned methods slow and unrealistic, and he hopes to use his own methods to open up a new era, claiming that the destiny is his own, but in fact he only believes in the power of people."

After a long time, Confucius sighed. This stubborn old man finally conceded defeat in some respects: "Although I can't agree with some of his actions, I am not as good as Zhao Zitai in this attitude of insisting on humanism and being careful with the beginning and the end."

Thinking about it this way, and looking down again, the false brilliance of the lin beast has dissipated, and it is just a stinking and frightening beast that is half dead.

Confucius let go of Lin and said to Ran Qiu:

"That's right, the actions of heaven are constant, not for Yao's existence, nor for Jie's death. There has never been any savior Ming Wang, and there has never been a foreshadowing, just old wishful thinking. Let it go, this is not a good omen, It's not ominous, it's just a poor beast..."

ps: The lin here is not the unicorn in mythology, but an animal that looks like a deer. The author once saw fossils in the Gansu Provincial Museum. Perhaps the lin that Confucius saw is the remains of this animal. .